Brake beam safety support



June 18, 1935. s. H. CAMPBELL ET A];

BRAKE BEAM SAFETY SUPPORT Filed Nov. 23 1953 Invehtors S. H. Campbell fiietzsch By FF Att y Patented June 18, 1935 UNITED STATES BRAKE BEAM, SAFETY SUPPORT Sterling H. Campbell" and Frank H.- Pietzsch, St.

Louis, Mo., assignors to Western Railway Equipment Company, St. Louis, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application November 23, 1933, Serial No. 699,361

. 8 Claims.

Brake beams of railway car trucks are liable to become detached and fall upon the track, thereby causing serious injury to or even wreckage of the rolling stock. iieretofore various forms of auxiliary safety supports have been de-' vised to engage either with the brake beamitself or with some of its associated parts, such as the brake lever connecting rod, toovercome this difiiculty. Such prior devices have, however, either been unduly complicated and hence costly to the manufacturer, or it has been difficult to attach them to the car whilethe parts of the truck are in position.

The object of our invention is to provide a safety support of simple construction which may be inserted through an opening in the web of the spring plank and moved into operative position by arotary motion of the rod-engaging part on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the web of the spring plank. By this construction the device is readily applied to any type of truck without the use of rivets in the flanges of the spring plank and without the necessity of raising the bolster from the spring plank, as has been necessary with many of the types of safety device previously in use.

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates one form of brake beam support made in accordance with our invention, Figure 1 is a 30 cross sectional view of a railway car truck, such parts as are unnecessary to the understanding of our invention being omitted; Figure 2 is an enlarged top plan View of a portion of the spring plank; Figure 3 is a section taken on the line 35 33 of Figure 2, one of the rod supporting loops being shown in position in the opening in the spring plank; and Figure 4 is a section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Referring first to Figure 1, 5 indicates an end frame of a car truck. Carried by the end frame are a bolster ii and spring plank l. The brake beams 8 (only one of which is shown) are associated in the usual manner with the brake lever connecting rod 9. For the purpose of illustrat- 45 ing our invention we have shown the brake beam as supported through the associated brake lever connecting rod, but our invention may be applied to independent supporting bars or rods, as

shown in patents to Elliott, No. 1,147,793 of July 50 p 27, 1915, and to Hindahl, No. 1,791,621 of February 10, 1931.

In the specific form of device shown in the drawing we form in the web of the. spring plank, over the connecting rod 9, a pair of openings each consisting of a main circular part I0 and an inwar ly extending slot H. The rod supporting members, of which two are used, are each formed of a barofmetal, preferably of square cross section. The bar is bent to form a loop i2 having at its upper part a restricted '5 or neck portion it, the ends of the bar being bent'over to form lateral supporting fingers l4 it, the former being'shorter than the latter and the two togetherforming a bearing head.

The parts are so proportioned that the restricted 10" portion or neck 53 will turn freely in the circular part I ii of the opening in the spring plank, and in order that after the long finger I5 has been inserted through the'opening, the loop be ing turned at right angles to its operative po- 15 sition, it may be moved into the slot H, as shown at the right hand side of Figure 2 to allow the short finger M to pass up through the opening. After this is accomplished, the loop is rotated on an axis perpendicular to the 2 web of the plank to bring it into position to receive the connecting rod 9 or other supporting member. The long finger I5 serves as a stop to limit the rotary motion of the loop so that it cannot be turned a substantial distance past the 25 operative position. The fiat under faces of the fingers provide ample bearing on the web of the spring plank to prevent injury to the latter from vibration. p r I While we have shown but one specific embodiment of our invention, we wish it to be understood that various modifications may be made in the structure without departing from the spirit of our invention. We also wish it understood that the term, beam as used in the claims, includes not only a brake lever connecting rod but also any similar member for supporting any part of the brake mechanism.

Having fully described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a device of the class described, the combination with a spring plank having an opening in its Web, of a safety device in said opening,

said safety device including a loop member op- 5 eratively positioned by rotation on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the Web of the spring plank the greatest dimension of the opening in the web being less than the width of the loop, and a beam extending through said loop member.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with a spring plank having an opening in its web, of a safety device having a portion entering said opening the greatest dimension of the opening in the web being less than the axis perpendicular to the web of the spring plank the greatest dimension of the opening in the web being less than the width of the loop, and a beam extending through said loop member.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination with a spring plank having an opening in its web, of a safetydevice comprising a loop member and a head the greatest dimension of the opening in the web being less than the width of the loopf'said parts having a reduced portion between them, said head being inserted through said opening and both said head and loop members being brought into operative position by rotation on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the web of the spring plank, and a beam extending through said loop member.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination with av spring plank having an opening in its web, of a safety device comprising a loop member and a head the greatest dimension of the opening in the web being less than the width of the loop, the latter being formed of a pair of fingers, said head being inserted through said opening and both said head and loop members being brought into operative position by rotation on an axis perpendicular to the web of the spring plank, and a beam extending through said loop member.

6. A brake beam safety support comprising a spring plank having in its bottom member an opening, an emergency safety device provided with a loop portion for a brake rigging member, said device being placed in said opening the greatest dimension of -the opening in the web being less than the width of the loop, said loop portion of the device operatively positioned below said spring plank by revolving upon an axis perpendicular to the bottom member of the spring plank;

7. A brake safety support comprising a spring plank having in its bottom member an opening, and a loop element for surrounding a brake rigging member the greatest dimension of the openingin the web being less than the width of the loop, said loop operatively positioned relative to said spring plank and placed to receive said brake rigging member by revolvingsaid loop on an axis perpendicular to the spring plank, said brake rigging member when within said loop preventing reverse revolving of said loop to inoperative position.

8. A brake beam safety support comprising a spring plank having in its web an opening, an emergency safety device having a loop portion for surrounding a brake rigging member the STERLING H.-CAMPBELL. FRANK H. PIETZSCH. 

